An RT-award-winning literary agent with 20 years experience in numerous genres opens up about her experience and adventures in publishing and the world beyond it.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Agent/Author Deidre Knight Takes on the RWA Stance against ePubs

In case you've been hibernating (or don't pay any attention to the romance market), the Romance Writers of America (RWA) came out against epublishers in its June membership newsletter, stating that they would not recognize any publisher that failed to pay a universal advance of $1000 per title and that they would decline to have an epublishing presentation at the annual RWA convention in Washington D.C. this year. They felt it was not in the interest of their membership, who should be striving toward print publishing.

Those of us who see epub as the new mass market and the future of publishing have been frustrated beyond belief with this archaic, elitist stance, but Deidre Knight, one of the insiders to publishing and writing in epub laid it all out for RWA in this timely and necessary treatise. Rather than summarize, I hope you'll go to the ink and read for yourself.

2 comments:

I have always had very negative experiences with RWA (despite being a PAN member via their old standards) and they continue to get worse and worse. I let my membership lapse last year and have no intention of going back. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks they are stuck in the Dark Ages. RWA is also very hostile to erotic romance writers---which makes no sense when you consider that erotic/steamy romance makes up the majority of what is being published in the genre now.

Good essay. I don't get the RWA's attitude, except as junkyard dogs that snarl and menace even as the junkyard is being dismantled. One would think that, given mainstream culture's attitude toward reading for pleasure, any medium that facilitates that reading would be welcome. In fact, people are reading more right now. Libraries nationwide are reporting notable increases in circulation, and not just of their DVD collections. I don't understand why publishers haven't gotten together to launch a "read through the recession" campaign--I'd bet for every dollar spent, there would be ten returned on newly published books, e- or print.